Developer ForumWhen Paul Otellini, senior VP at Intel US, was asked a question at an interview about when we'd see 12-inch wafers in production, his question was picked up by Howard High, senior PR director at the company. High said: "We have a 300mm project under way. We have a development fab in Oregon which is a 300mm fab. "We'll probably have to decide some time in the first half of this year what we do about the technology." Meanwhile, practically every US IT stock share showed falls today. Intel's shares have dropped by nearly $10 over the last four days. The fact that the Intel flag was flying at half mast outside Fab 11 was nothing to do with the drop, a representative told The Register. ®

UpdatedThe Register had a rare tour around Intel's vast clean room in Albuquerque today, as executives at the company outlined their plans for Fab 11's future. Brian Harrison, Fab 11 Plant Manager, said: "We're producing well over 10,000 wafers a week and we're the biggest Intel fab. We'll do .18 micron process technology in late 1999 or 2000 here." Harrison revealed that there will be a .18 micron Flash to follow the current .25 micron technology Fab 11 is producing. He said that as well as Flash, Fab 11 produced Pentiums, chipsets, Pentium IIs, Pentium IIIs, Xeons and Celerons at the factory. Currently, Fab 11 manages to get yields of between 140-160 Pentium IIs on one eight inch wafer, one Intel employee told The Register. Yields will increase when it moves to .18 micron technology and the 12 inch wafer technology will also help. However, Intel will need a higher level of automation to handle 12 inch wafers. They are currently fragile and expensive and require investment in the right type of equipment. This explains Howard High's comments on 300 mm (12 inch) technology (See separate story). Fab 11 will move to .13 micron at the end of next year, as Merced begins its slow progress towards proliferation. Fab 11 currently ships thousands of eight inch wafers on .35 micron and .25 micron technologies, he said. He said Fab 11 will begin manufacturing Flash in April 99 on the .25 micron process technology, with successful prototype product out of the line. Intel is expected to shrink its Easy BGA (ball grid array) packaging, Stacked CSP packaging and its Micro BGA packaging shortly. And yes, we have a photo of the staffer in his Bunny Suit ordinaire. ®